Postal department to deliver essential items through National Road Transport Network during lockdown

To ensure the delivery of essential items within the country during the lockdown, department of Posts designed a National Road Transport Network with 22 long routes of over 500 km interspersed with 34 interstate/intra-state schedules touching over 75 cities across the country.

A press release from the Ministry of Communications said, "Due to the prevailing situation arising out of lock-down due to COVID-19, the supply chain management of essential items in the country got disrupted as the passenger airlines, railways and state roadways stopped plying."

"Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law and Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad while addressing the senior officers of the Department of Posts, encouraged the department to think out of the box in the crisis period. As a result of this encouragement, the idea of starting a road network with the existing fleet of departmental vehicles, primarily used for intra-city delivery, was conceived and a National Road Transport Network was designed with 22 long routes of over 500 km interspersed with 34 interstate/intra-state schedules touching over 75 cities across the country," the press release read.

This initiative will now ensure that there is a movement of essential items within the country as the Department of Posts will be able to deliver parcels carrying essential items anywhere in the country.

The press release stated, "The Department of Posts has already taken a number of initiatives to ensure supplies of essential items including medicines, COVID-19 testing kits, masks, stizers, PPEs and medical equipment including ventilators and defibrillators to all corners of the country."

"The Department has also been delivering cash at doorsteps specially of old, divyangjan, pensioners through Aadhar enabled payment system. This National Road Transport Network is yet another initiative of the Department to reach out to people across the country," it added.

( With inputs from ANI )